Collapse survivors protest in Bangladesh; toll tops 761

May 8, 2013
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A garment worker arrives in crutches as others, employed at Rana Plaza, the garment factory building that collapsed, stand in a queue to receive wages from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. / AP

by Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

by Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

DHAKA, Bangladesh - Hasina Ahkter, 18, was at work folding clothes on the sixth floor when the eight-story building crashed down around her. Two hours later, she was rescued, with injuries to one leg.

Nine days later, rescuers found the corpse of her husband, Quim Ali, who ironed clothes for the same factory, New Wave Style, a supplier of Canadian brand Joe Fresh.

"They don't think we are human beings. We try to know whether they will pay our salary. I call them many times, but they don't accept my call," she said of the trade consortium that oversees many textile factories in Bangladesh.

Hundreds of garment workers in Bangladesh who survived last month's collapse of a factory-filled building blocked a highway near the site Tuesday to protest unpaid wages and compensation for the disaster.

The death toll from the April 24 collapse - already the South Asian nation's worst-ever industrial accident, and the worst tragedy to hit the garment sector worldwide - passed 700 Tuesday, when more corpses were recovered from the rubble of Rana Plaza in the Savar suburb of Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital.

The likely final death toll remains unclear as authorities have not completed a list of who was working in Rana's five factories that made clothes for brands sold worldwide, including North America. Over 2,500 people were rescued in the days after the tragedy.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), a consortium of textile businesses and a lobbying group, blamed the incomplete numbers for its failure to meet a pledge to pay outstanding wages Tuesday.

A few hundred workers who had gathered close to Rana Plaza reacted by blocking the adjacent highway Tuesday morning. For some survivors, frustration at their post-disaster treatment is worsening the pain of bereavement and injury.

Hasina, who earned $51 a month, took part in Tuesday's protest and vowed to join another planned for Wednesday. She also complained that no factory or government representative assisted her during a hospital stay where she had to pay for her own treatment.

The garment industry earns Bangladesh almost $20 billion a year and is a major engine of solid economic growth in recent years. About 3.5 million Bangladeshis - 80% of them women - work in the sector, but wages for many remain low.

Farzana Akhter earned $61 a month sewing clothes inside Rana Plaza before the collapse that trapped her for a day under concrete, injuring her waist.

Although the garment industry is credited for empowering many young rural women like Farzana, who otherwise have traditionally lacked employment opportunities outside the home, her young age points to weak or non-existent enforcement of labor laws. Now 17, she says she has worked in clothes factories for almost four years.

The survivors of the disaster say they are owed their April salary plus three months' salary as compensation for the loss of their jobs, and a further payment based on length of service, as stipulated in labor law. They claim that the garment association is only offering one month's salary and the additional payment.

"The government assured us that we'll get a new job and compensation, but we're yet to get anything, not even a single medicine pill," Farzana said Tuesday near the disaster site. "I was admitted to hospital for three days but we didn't get any compensation there, and only the saline drip was for free."

Local government administrator Yousuf Harun told the Associated Press they are working with BGMEA to ensure the workers get paid.